Use It Up

Unless your introduction to beauty blogs was approximately 5 seconds ago, it’s safe to say, people who click by accident dear readers, that you've heard of ‘project pan’ – a phenomenon that has swept through beauty blogs and youtube make up ‘guru’ vlogs.  In case you don’t know, the basic concept is hold off buying any new make up products until you've finished the ones already in your possession.  Hence the ‘hitting pan’ where you can see the metal casing of your foundation powder/eyeshadow case etc. 

I’m ashamed to say I’m a hoarder of products.  I like to eke out their use very slowly.  Really slowly.  Glacially slow in pace, in fact.  I have make up products that are almost a decade old (that I still use – hello bourjois naturel lipstick in paprika, my favourite lipstick of all time).  It’s not right, is it?  I’m giving this a go because it’s a good way of using up products and being creative. 

First on my list to be used are these products by Burt Bees:

I don’t know the shelf life of Burt Bees products but I bought these products a long time ago and almost forgot about them.  As you can see, I’ve almost used up the Lemon butter cuticle crème – the most delicious smelling product I have in my possession.  By comparison, the lotion and hand salve look brand new.  There’s a part of me that still wants to hold off using them until the winter when my skin becomes dry but I remember the cautionary tale of my Burt Bees almond and milk hand cream.  I used to carry it in my bag and use it whenever I needed a hit of something sweet smelling.  Then, for some reason I took it out my bag and left it on my dresser where it lay forgotten.  I picked it up some months later to find the sweet almond smell had gone off really badly rendering the cream unusable. 

Burt Bees is like Lush in the sense that the ingredients are natural (or at least not overloaded with chemicals I've never heard of) and guess it must have a shelf life of some sort even if it’s not stated on the package.  Actually, the ingredients on the foot lotion are quite interesting to read through.  It has witch hazel, tea tree oil and baking soda amongst other ingredients. 

I’m gonna start using it and will report on it if all goes well.  Burt Bees is a great little company and I’ve been happy with their products so far (except the shampoo bar which didn’t clean my hair) so I expect great things.  

Let me shoehorn in a quick review...

Despite my ‘project pan’ I bought a new lipstick from The Body Shop.  I’d put buying a suitable shade of lipstick on a par with finding a decent pair of jeans that fit.  BLOODY IMPOSSIBLE!  I would have bought a lipstick from Revlon but I could get a major discount with my Body Shop card so I plumped for a sheer lip colour from the delipscious range.  

I’d read through the reviews on the Body Shop site and I would concur with the odd smell of the lipstick.  It’s natural fruit flavour apparently.  I’ve never smelt a fruit like it.  It smells off.  Also, weirdly, when testing the colour on the back of my hand, it looked a lot lighter than the actual shade printed on the sticker.  I bought ‘pomegranate’ colour thinking it was lighter than the sticker shade.  The reality is that when applying it to your lips, the colour matches the sticker not what's on the back of your hand.  It’s a berry colour and it looks very natural on the lips.  I'm quite pleased with it even if it's a tad darker than I wanted.  I suppose it will go well with the autumnal look although looking out my window, it’s far too sunny to make the wardrobe switch to autumn – not that I’m complaining.  This summer has been underwhelming weather-wise.  

Retro Packaging

I want to finish off my post by drawing your attention to another product that’s been sitting on my shelf.  My mum bought me this hand and nail cream.  It seems like a cute piece of retro packaging that was in vogue a couple of years back.  I think it’s cute too.  However, there’s something that just niggles at the back of my mind.  On the front it says ‘Saucy Girl’ probably in reference to the rather well endowed lady sitting pretty.  

On back it says:

Sweet as sugar

And cute as a kitten;

A night with me

Will leave you smitten.

The hand cream does indeed smell sugary but is it possible for a hand cream to be described as cute?  And does anyone spend a night with their hand cream? (Oh God, don’t answer that…).  Maybe I’ve got it wrong.  Maybe this flirty little verse refers to the ‘saucy girl’ so it’s some kind of hand cream as a girl metaphor?  In which case: eeeeeeeeew. 

And yet it sits happily on my shelf (although discreetly placed).  Secretly, I quite like the naughty innuendo.  

Oh, I’m such a bad girl.